Dead stock: how to find it in your shop and clear it

What is dead stock?

Dead stock is stock you paid for that is not selling. Each piece holds cash you cannot use, takes shelf space a better seller could have, and loses value while it waits: clothes go out of season, packaging fades, cosmetics and food reach their dates.

It is different from slow-moving stock. A slow item still sells, just less than you hoped. A dead item has not sold at all for a long stretch, so the question is no longer how much to reorder but how to get the money back.

How do you tell dead stock from stock that is just new?

A rule of "no sale in 90 days" is not enough on its own. A jacket that arrived ten days ago has not sold in 90 days only because it has not been in the shop for 90 days. So judge each item by two dates: when it last arrived, and when it last sold.

How do you find dead stock in any shop?

1. Pick a number of days that fits what you sell: shorter for fashion and seasonal goods, longer for basics that sell all year.
2. For each item at each branch, note the date it last arrived and the date it last sold.
3. Mark the items with no sale in that time that have also been in the shop that long.
4. Put a value on each one at cost, and start with the items that hold the most money.
5. Look for a pattern: one supplier, one season, one size, or one branch.
6. Count those items before you act, so you are clearing what is really on the shelf. Our guide on how to do a stock count covers the counting.

How do you find dead stock in PointLit?

PointLit gives every item in stock one of the three verdicts above, in the Dead stock column of the Stock ageing report. Age is counted from the item's last arrival at that branch: a goods receipt, a transfer in, a carry-over into a new collection or a production run. A stock count or an adjustment is a correction, not an arrival, so it does not make old stock look new.

1. Open Reports, and under Stock choose Stock ageing.
2. Set Not sold for (days). It is 90 unless you change it, and it can be anything from 7 to 730.
3. Choose the Rows: By variant, By product, By collection or By branch, and filter by branch, collection, category, supplier or brand if you want one part of the shop.
4. Read each row: On hand, Last arrival, Days since arrival, Age, Last sale, and Dead stock, which says Dead stock, Too new to judge or Selling. Roles allowed to see costs also see Value.
5. Sort by Value to start with the stock that holds the most money, then export the list to Excel or CSV, or print it, to work through it on the shop floor.

How do you clear dead stock?

• Move it to a branch where it sells. In PointLit the Suggested transfers report proposes moves from a branch with more than it needs to one that is short, and a transfer is sent from one branch and received at the other.
• Put it where customers see it: near the till, at eye level, or next to a best seller it goes with.
• Bundle it with a best seller, such as a belt with trousers or a case with a phone.
• Mark it down and show the old price. A PointLit label can print a Was price next to the new one, and Labels for price changes in the Barcode Printer adds every repriced item to the print basket.
• Return it to the supplier if your agreement allows it. PointLit records a return to the supplier against the original goods receipt.
• Carry seasonal stock into the next season's collection instead of leaving it in a closed one.
• Write off what is damaged or past its date, with a reason, so the stock figures stay true.

How do you stop dead stock building up again?

• Buy a smaller first order of anything new, and reorder on what sells.
• Check the items marked Too new to judge at 30 and 60 days, before they become dead stock.
• Watch sizes as well as models: in clothing and shoes, the extreme sizes are often what is left. PointLit's Size curve report shows which sizes sell.
• Look at dead stock by supplier and by collection, and bring the result to your next order.
• Count regularly, so the stock on the report is the stock on the shelf.